Two US boxing writers predict Pacquiao win
Manila Times, Philippines - LOS ANGELES, California: Two American boxing writers are picking Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao over Oscar de la Hoya in the December 6 showdown between the best pound-for-pound boxer in the world and the sport’s most popular figure.
John Martinez predicted in IronBoxing.com Thursday Pacquiao winning by decision or by knockout in the last rounds after watching the Filipino star up close in training.
“My prediction is Manny will win on points or quite possibly a late stoppage around the eight to 10 round via a wicked body attack to the part time, once golden Oscar de la Hoya,” said Martinez, a southern California sportswriter.
Martinez said the key to victory is for Pacquiao to “make the old man work” with swift feet, head movement, staying off the ropes and eventually, making Oscar lean forward and fight small rather than tall.
Until he watched Pacquiao work out a number of times, Martinez said he thought the matchup was no more than some sort of “glorified sparring session.”
“However, after having repeated debates on this issue, I have now figured out what the entire buzz is truly about—Oscar will lose,” Martinez said.
But he cautioned Pacquiao to be alertly on guard in the early rounds because de la Hoya has a tendency to throw everything he has in the first four to five rounds, adding that after that Oscar “becomes flat footed and gassed.”
“Manny as we all know fights five minutes of every three-minute round allotted to him,” Martinez said of the Filipino’s explosive ring output. “He is built for the days when championship fights lasted 15 to 20 rounds, not 12.”
Veteran boxing writer Vivek Wallace said de la Hoya’s inactivity and lack of focus as a boxer would lead to his downfall in the December 6 encounter dubbed by promoters as a “dream match.”
Lamenting what he called the “contradictions” between de la Hoya as a businessman and as a prizefighter, Wallace suggested that much of Oscar’s pre-fight claims about how fit and well trained he is were no more than hype.
“If Pacquiao comes out and does what I firmly believe he can do, I hope that Oscar-the-boxer goes away for good, because I fall in sync with that strong majority out there that can’t stomach another reinvention of yesterday’s hype,” Wallace wrote in EastSideBoxing.com.
Wallace observed that in five previous bouts with boxing Hall of Fame-bound fighters, de la Hoya in his prime has not won a single match. He was referring to his losses against Floyd Mayweather Jr., Bernard Hopkins, Tito Trinidad and Shane Mosley (twice).
He said that even if de la Hoya pulls it off in the year’s biggest boxing event, the victory will no matter much because he would be fighting a lightweight who has to go up 20 pounds to challenge him.
“One other thing Oscar hasn’t seemed to comprehend is the fact that his better days are far behind him,” said Wallace, who also writes extensively about the Miami Heat.
